Tag Archives: Malala Yousafzai

Members and activists register for the Midwest Regional Conference, held in Chicago on November 10, 2012.

This past weekend, Amnesty International USA hosted the 2012 Regional Conferences in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC. The conferences brought together 1,000 people from around the country to hear inspiring speakers, share tactics, learn about pressing issues and help shape Amnesty’s future. The following is just a quick overview of the events:

West: Held in San Francisco, the Western conference began with remarks by Lhamo Tso, wife of the Tibetan Prisoner of Conscience (POC) Dhondup Wangchen, who is serving a prison sentence in China for speaking out about Tibetan human rights through his filmmaking. The conference also included caucuses by roles including youth, local groups and human rights educators, and workshops on topics including POC’s, Pussy Riot, the Middle East and North Africa, and closing remarks by Bu DongWei, a former Amnesty POC.

Malala Yousufzai got on the bus on Tuesday morning to go to school. With her, were two of her school friends, also bound for Mingora, the largest town in Pakistan’s Swat District, where their school is located. It was an ill-fated journey. Before the girls could get to school that morning, Tehreek-e-Taliban gunmen accosted the bus.

One of the girls, Shazia Razaman confirmed that they were specifically looking for Malala. She was easy to find, and when they did find her, they shot her in the head. Hours, later as Pakistanis and the world, watched, aghast and stunned at yet another act of inhumane violence, the spokesperson for the Tehreek-e-Taliban, specifically took responsibility for the attack saying:

“She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban.”